"In this article, I show at the transistor and silicon level. I've discussed the mathematics of the 6502 overflow flag earlier and thought it would be interesting to look at the actual chip-level implementation. Even though the overflow flag is a slightly obscure feature, its circuit is simple enough that it can be explained at the silicon level."

Or is this just a slow week? Don't get me wrong, i like reading about niche hardware, but there are chips from that time one can still buy retail and play with. for example the Z80 is still sold and used in many of the CCC MP4 players sold on Chinamart, one can pick up one of those and try hacking on that.

Heck I'm shocked somebody don't pay one of the Chinamart vendors for a fully unlocked unit just for hacking, its not like those little Chinese companies are against hacking as all they want is to sell the hardware.

It was last time I checked. See those cheap MP3/MP4 players at the checkout? Z80. Thermostats? Z80. Car Stereos and car MP3 players? Z80. Honestly they seem to use that chip more now than they did back when it was being sold in mainstream computers. Can't say as I blame 'em, easy to program for, low power, cheap, and can play most media with the right DSP attached.

Like I said go to Chinamart or any of those Asian vendor sites and you'll find TONS of units, from gumstick MP3s to game handhelds running the Z80 chip, some of them are pretty fricking awesome. I had one of the "MP4" players that ran on SD cards, it would play NES and Gameboy as well as play music and videos, got halfway decent battery life as well. I ended up giving it to a relative who had a sick kid, kept his mind off being sick all the time to have hundreds of games on an SD card. I'm really gonna have to get me another one one of these days, they are great little units.

OSNews isn't as technical as I'd like it to be, but I still can appreciate articles covering the basics. Whether they're basic or advanced, I like technical articles much more than those catering to the mobile bling crowd, but I'm surely in the minority and it hasn't helped that there aren't regular technical writers on staff.